When should you start to scout players?
There exist different opinions about this. I know some colleagues who are not much interested in younger players, they just concentrate on the draftees. Personally I'm interested in younger player because of the described most important „ability to learn”, I want to check this. Actually I start with 14 years old but a couple of months ago e.g. I did watch even a 13 years old who is already an unbelievable explosive, fast and technically sound skater, so I don't tell he is just 13, I don’t tell I'm not interested in. A couple of weeks ago I even followed a 11 years old kid who did impress me a lot and again: I don’t tell that I’m not interested in this kid. Of course I will follow him, his progress and everything. On the one hand I do know for sure that projecting 11, 12 or 13 years old is extremely tricky. On the other hand I don't tell that I'm not interested in them, if somebody stands out in this age I'm of course interested in and if this someone has some special abilities I definitely write down some comments and check later about improvement. One person asked about scouting already a 7 years old. I don't know about 7 years old but if he stands out in the vision-category I would like to find out why. Maybe he did watch much more hockey-games than others in his age, maybe he has a dad who did teach him some sort of vision at a very early age. Maybe he played already tons of pond-hockey or something similiar. I definitely would be interested in this kid but mostly there are quite unspectacular answers about why he is so good in this aspect in such an early age. I definitely wouldn't project him yet but I definitely would love to watch him playing already. I love to watch exceptional things in hockey. Young phenoms, fastest players, most strong, most whatever. But for most of these discovered „most of whatever“ there are usually pretty simple reasons. And the reason No.1 is: This kid did play more hockey than others, did skate more, did have the better teachers or in the best case scenario: A combination of both. It’s usually not so much about just talent. Even Mozart was not really as much of a boy-wonder as we would like to think, he had a musician as father (Leopold Mozart) who was keen on doing drills with his son, Wolfgang. So Wolfgang became very good at a very young age because of more and better practice than others. Also the Beatles became just world-famous after practising thousands of hours together in Hamburg
Somebody else did ask about what I think in terms of letting kids just shoot the puck, going coast to coast, always challenging the 1:1 and so on. I strongly support the approach of just letting the kids develop their fun, their passion with the game. Kids who can go coast to coast and shoot the puck - let them do this. Kids who love to pass the puck. Let them do this; don't punish them by telling "not allowed to go 1:1" or "not allowed to shoot", or "not allowed to pass". They will develop what they like most and then they come naturally to a point where they will find out that their domination doesn't work anymore. They will find out that if they want to go on with dominating the game they also have to learn to use their teammates with clever playmaking and passing. The vision-guy will find that if he wants to reach the next level he also has to learn how to score, how to shoot the puck, they will find out that it is most exciting if the opponents never will find out what I will do next, passing, going 1:1 or shooting. But don't punish them too early with not allowing doing this or that. Let them develop and cultivate their speciality and if the kid is really passionate about the game, curious about hockey in general, it will ask about players, about strategies, about different skills and assets of great hockey-players, curious, passionate kids want to know everything early enough and will adapt what is needed to become a more or less well-rounded hockey-player. Lazy kids, who want to stay in their comfort-zone, will just go on with only shooting, only skating or just passing. Try to observe this and if you find curiousity, passion to learn additional things, maybe even obsession, it tells a lot about overall talent - if the basic-mechanics and maybe the one or the other speciality are there in combination with the curiosity, the obsession to improve, the love for the game…then watch out!
I do also agree with somebody who told me that in his eyes you need to have a certain amount of basic talent. Yes, this is true, you need to have certain mechanics in your movements, a certain level of body-coordination, of hand-eye-coordination. You need to have certain basic physical tools if you want to become a world-class hockey-player (e.g. you never will be a deadly scorer if you have weak wrists) and I also guess it really helps if you have at least an average intelligence. If you don't have this it will be extremely difficult. But again...you also can improve your body-coordination, you also can learn this. A well respected Russian figure-skating-teacher did tell me once, - when my son was very small – “send him to gymnastic-lessons and you will see how much of a better skater he will be after all (he will improve body-balance and coordination)” I guess she was right. Of course you can't do everything, you have to set priorities, but again, work more - maybe even gymnastics - and you will be a better player. When I was very young my father wanted me to play the violin, I was pretty good at this, did win even a national-junior-championship but unfortunately I didn't like it too much - would have preferred to play hockey. So I did reach just a certain level (junior-championship) but didn’t improve later much because of lack of passion. When I was bigger I played more hockey and wondered why I had astonishing good, soft and quick hands and hand-eye-coordination and I guess part of the truth was my extremely developed hand-eye-coordination from playing the violin for years, I also did easily learn to shoot the puck pretty well with my backhand and this also had to do with certain mechanics, developed in my left arm/hand from playing the violin. I played some sort of hockey in the basement of our house with sticks with crushed hockey-blades from players who did throw away the damaged stick. Nobody did get me a real hockey-stick…poor boy I was…smile.... I stickhandled hours in narrow tight spaces around chairs, gardening-machines, potatoes and wine-bottles with a “handicapped” stick. It was big fun and you know what? With all this I developed excellent stickhandling-abilities and everybody did think that I’m just talented – but actually I did just practise hundreds of hours in our basement. Don't get me wrong: Don't make your son playing the violin if he wants to become a hockey-player and I also don’t think it’s necessary to present your son a crushed hockey-stick... but I guess you know what I mean.
I do also agree with somebody who told me that in his eyes you need to have a certain amount of basic talent. Yes, this is true, you need to have certain mechanics in your movements, a certain level of body-coordination, of hand-eye-coordination. You need to have certain basic physical tools if you want to become a world-class hockey-player (e.g. you never will be a deadly scorer if you have weak wrists) and I also guess it really helps if you have at least an average intelligence. If you don't have this it will be extremely difficult. But again...you also can improve your body-coordination, you also can learn this. A well respected Russian figure-skating-teacher did tell me once, - when my son was very small – “send him to gymnastic-lessons and you will see how much of a better skater he will be after all (he will improve body-balance and coordination)” I guess she was right. Of course you can't do everything, you have to set priorities, but again, work more - maybe even gymnastics - and you will be a better player. When I was very young my father wanted me to play the violin, I was pretty good at this, did win even a national-junior-championship but unfortunately I didn't like it too much - would have preferred to play hockey. So I did reach just a certain level (junior-championship) but didn’t improve later much because of lack of passion. When I was bigger I played more hockey and wondered why I had astonishing good, soft and quick hands and hand-eye-coordination and I guess part of the truth was my extremely developed hand-eye-coordination from playing the violin for years, I also did easily learn to shoot the puck pretty well with my backhand and this also had to do with certain mechanics, developed in my left arm/hand from playing the violin. I played some sort of hockey in the basement of our house with sticks with crushed hockey-blades from players who did throw away the damaged stick. Nobody did get me a real hockey-stick…poor boy I was…smile.... I stickhandled hours in narrow tight spaces around chairs, gardening-machines, potatoes and wine-bottles with a “handicapped” stick. It was big fun and you know what? With all this I developed excellent stickhandling-abilities and everybody did think that I’m just talented – but actually I did just practise hundreds of hours in our basement. Don't get me wrong: Don't make your son playing the violin if he wants to become a hockey-player and I also don’t think it’s necessary to present your son a crushed hockey-stick... but I guess you know what I mean.
Thomas Roost
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